Do You Want To Go Eat Food
by MistressOfTheWinter
Summary: Inspired by a scene from the movie Elf.


**This was inspired by a scene from the movie Elf when Buddy tries to get a date by asking the girl if she'd like to "go eat food."**

**This version of the Doctor is somewhere in between after he drops the Ponds off and before The Wedding of River Song. River has already gotten her pardon and is working at the University as a professor.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Doctor Who or any of its lovely characters.**

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><p>He leaves the brakes off this time in hopes of surprising her for once and after the TARDIS lands he steps out, closes the doors quietly behind him and glances around briefly- Lecture Hall 4, Luna University. It was set up like an auditorium with its mahogany benches that curved around the room and floor that sloped down to the stage that held a podium on one side, a desk on the other and a screen used for presentations on the wall behind it.<p>

River Song, professor of _archaeology_- rubbish subject, but he supposed if he had a professor like her, taking that class wouldn't be nearly as painful as he figured. He walks down to the stage where she's sitting at her desk, head bent and scribbling furiously across a student's paper in red pen.

"Hello, sweetie," she doesn't look up as she says it and it's funny how just two words, spoken with the perfect balance of flirtatiousness and endearment can make his hearts speed up ever so slightly. His mind wonders to thinking about her hair and how it would feel to have one of those curls wrapped around his finger- it really would be a sin for her to straighten it, he thinks, forgetting to return her greeting.

She sets her pen down and pulls out a worn blue diary from her desk, opens it and looks at him, eyes bright and her lips curved into a smile, "Where are we then? Have we redone Area 52?"

"Redone? Haven't done it the first time. It's after Berlin for me." If he had blinked he would have missed it, the falter of her smile and the slight dim of her eyes. He did, however, miss the discreet movement of her pulling a ring off her left hand and placing it in her desk as she puts the blue diary back in its place.

She picks her pen back up and returns to writing on the paper, "So why are you here, love?"

He scratches the side of his face, "Actually, I was…erm…just wondering if…" he wrings his hands together; how did this frustratingly wonderful woman make him feel so…so _human_. He straightens the lapels of his jacket, "Do you want to go eat food?"

She looks up at him again, eyes alight with amusement and lips set in a smirk, "Do I…do I want to eat food?"

He nods enthusiastically, "You know, _the code_."

Her smile widens and her eyebrow wings up, "The code?"

"Yes," he waves his arms about, "the code! You, River Song, must know about the code."

She folds her hands under her chin and just looks at him expectantly and that's when he realizes that she _knows_ what he's trying to get at- she just wants to hear him say it. Why does she have to be so difficult? Not that he minds, that's something he loves about her; not that he'd ever admit it.

He straightens his bow tie, "I was thinking we could go out for dinner, you know, like a…like a date…and then maybe dancing- dancing's good, dancing's cool, dancing-," she cuts him off before he can properly begin his ramble, smiling fondly at him, "No offense, sweetie, but I've seen you dance- you're rubbish."

He gasps in mock hurt, "_That_, River Song, is _not_," he taps her nose, "true. I am a fantastic dancer." He straightens his jacket matter of factly and her eyebrow rises again, "Oh really? Prove it."

He smiles and holds out his hand for her to take, accepting her challenge. Her smile grows and she places her hand in his, allowing him to sweep her out to the middle of the stage.

She gasps lightly as he pulls her close, disregarding personal space and determined to prove he can dance. He takes her left hand and places his free hand on the small of her back. She places her head on his shoulder as they sway, the fingers of her right hand scratching lightly at the nape of his neck, sending shivers down his spine. He hums the tune to one of his favorite songs into her hair as they dance, inhaling the smell that is so very River- the smell of earth after rain and something that reminds him so much of _time_.

He pulls away from her and spins her around, causing her to laugh her melodic laugh that shoots straight into his hearts and fills him with warmth. When he pulls her back to him, she makes a move as if to kiss him but stops herself and he can tell what she's thinking- he's too young, this is too early for him, that he's not _her_ Doctor- no, he refuses to believe that and the next thing he knows his lips are on hers and they stop dancing as they kiss, one of his hands on the side of her face and the other tangled in her mass of wild curls.

The break the kiss only for the need to breathe and her head is back on his shoulder and he can feel her smile into his neck as they start to sway again, her arms draped over his shoulders and his hands placed in the perfect curve of her waist as if that's where they're meant to be.

They stay like that for a while longer until she whispers softly in his ear, "You know…I really would like to go eat food with you." A smile breaks across his face, "Then what are we waiting for?" He takes her hand and runs with her to the TARDIS, rambling off all the wonderful places they could go, and he figures that just this once, he'd let her do flying.

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><p><strong>As always, thank you for reading.<strong>

**Reviews are wonderful and make the best Christmas presents :)**


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